


Shattering (just to pick up the pieces)

by TheBattyQueen



Category: Astral Chain (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Female Protagonist, Fix-it fic, Gen, Legions don't talk they think at you, Male Akira, PTSD, Player Character has so many issues, Player Character is name Akari, Saw some Time travel fics and brain went Ohh, and a lot of trust issues, because have you see what happens in this game, every one wants to help, no one knows how
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:34:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21835264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBattyQueen/pseuds/TheBattyQueen
Summary: Akari Howard has accepted that you can't change the past that doesn't mean that she has stopped going back to punch things until she feels better.
Relationships: Akira Howard & Maximilian Howard, Akira Howard & Player Character, Maximilian Howard & Player Character, Maximilian Howard/Alicia Lopez
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I can not be allowed to read fanfiction when I am obsessed with things, this will include a lot of my head cannons about Max Howard's past stuff plus about the twins and other characters.  
> I might change the title because I am bad at naming things  
> inspired by 【File〗 by Zell_Hatoule.  
> also inspired by Repair by Zimochka

Waking up was always hard, that was no different for Akari Howard but the difference between her and most people is that she was once again waking up on a motorcycle going faster than the speed limit heading towards a gate opening. Pulling her Cycle in a serpentine manner across the lanes of the Highway she quickly got used to her surroundings and focused on where the aberrations would be coming from while she went over the mental map she had made of her surroundings over her many time running this mission. Once she knew where she was, she quickly began firing killing the first two aberrations before they could even register that she noticed them. Today was a bad day back in the present and she wanted to punch something, but the training room was open to having people watch her fight and of course she wanted to be left alone as well. So the answer to that was to find the least traumatic mission she could go back through a beat up everything she was allowed to but after her nightmare the night before the only one left for her to do was the very first one because somehow that was the only mission that she had not suffered a trauma from. She had decided to just do this one over and over until she worked out some aggression or felt like being around people again. Continuing down the road firing at aberrations and dodging cars, she processed her nightmare from the night before, she was barely watching the road in front of her but it never changed, so whatever. As she continued she thought about how messed up the dream had been, with her having to kill each member of Neuron as they held back Noah like she had to do to her brother, it hurts so much. Pulling out her X-baton she switched to blaster mode and began firing at the aberrations on the truck trying to clear the image of nightmare from her head, the part coming up would help but beating up things would help more.

Speeding out of the tunnel with an explosion behind her as Akari shot an aberration cleared her mind a bit because soon she would have to help some civilians. Then she would get to fight which made her happy. The medic called out to her as soon as she passed into his line of sight and she quickly helped the injured man up and to the stretcher that was waiting for him. She kind of wished that this could go faster but the man was badly hurt, with a broken ankle, and she was not big enough to carry him at a run as he was taller than her. But she soon got him to the stretcher she “listened” to medic, he always said the same thing, before watching the next chopper come in covered in aberrations and go to crash, starting to run after it she got to the part she had been looking forward to the most as an aberration attacked a civilian and she got to hit it until it broke apart. Moving through the aberration fight without getting hit used to be an accomplishment but now was just her normal way of doing things even now when she wasn’t trying to be careful. Finishing up with a shot at a flying aberration and “listening” to the other two officers, again they always said the same thing, who were helping their friend she collected some medicine and gathered all the dropped items, now her Legions were close enough for her to hear them through the bond that had built up as they went through things together and then went through them again and again as partners. Every single one except her sword, Katana, were grumbling while Katana was happy to be redoing this one as their first sync was always nice, and her beast, Neko, was also happy because she liked helping Alicia and once again getting to be her partner was nice, even if Alicia’s new beast legion was a better fit, Neko still enjoyed getting to work with her again. Akari’s arrow legion, Kira after a childhood nickname of Akira, was unhappy about being stuck in the Legatus for the time being and her Arm legion, Heavyweight, was upset that she wanted to punch things without him. Her Axe legion, Battle short for Battle axe, was more upset that she chose to punch things rather than talk to someone about her problems, Akari ignored him.

Racing forward again she grabbed some useful items out of habit before reaching Akira who was kneeling next to an officer who had a broken leg, not that they knew that yet, she had looked at the report after the fact. When the gates opened and dropped a few Chimeras out at them, this part sucked because they were fast and she couldn’t see them except for a faint outline that she had later learned was not normal, her and her brother’s high corruption baseline allowed them to just barely see the chimeras without a Legatus or taking a drug that helped with that. So instead the two dodged around trying to hit the things that were hitting them but missing over and over. Akari listened to her legion getting closer and closer as their bond grew stronger and stronger due to being closer to her and let her myself relax as the hit that sent her sprawling cane but with it the senior members of Neuron arrived to save them. She was glad that she couldn’t burst out into tears as her dad pulled her up and made sure she was okay, letting herself breath in his scent and feel his presence next to her was very helpful, her dad could always calm her down after nightmares. She tuned out his argument with the fusion obsessed madman and just waited for him to toss her her Lagatus so she could relive her first time sending Katana out, another thing that was great about redoing this mission, that first time was like… well she could never explain it properly. The best she had was that it was like the time her dad took her and Akira to the Agricultural zone to let them see how food was grown and the two breathed in air that didn’t have the scent of millions of people or thousands of cars for the first time, but it also included filling a hole that she had never known she had. Akari thought that this, along with dad dying, was why Akira reacted so badly to losing his legion. Not because it filled the hole but because it made him notice it and almost filled it. His new legions were a much better fit, he only had two, Sword and Arrow, as the ones he had had as Captain of the Ravens were lost in the fight with Noah and, if some of his new behaviors were to be believed, may have sacrificed themselves to put the originals Akira’s memories into the only surviving clone. Akari didn’t mind his new behaviors because she also had some after fusing with her legions and it could be passed off as that. Akira was not sure if he wanted more legions because he thought that maybe losing his legions was the reason he was missing memories and, honestly, Akari was content to let him believe that because if she told him the truth she might blurt out that she… that she… the Legatus landed in her arms forcing her out of her thoughts and bringing her back to the moment. Holding it as her brother talked, she felt the pulse of Katana inside the device and got ready to feel the effect of releasing him for the first time again. Seeing the gate opened and drop a few Chimeras out she looked at her brother and nodding, the two moving in sync to activate the Legatus and release their legions. Akari watched as the vague outline of the chimera filled in and became full letting her see it and then felt the rush of the first time she and Katana interacted fill that hole inside her. Soon they were fighting she decided against gathering the torn bag hanging off the overpass because she just wanted to fight things right now. Switching through her legions as they fought through the waves of enemies she switched back to Katana as the large gate opened up dropping a huge Chimera out at them. Launching herself at it in a sync attack with Katana the quickly whittled its health down so that as soon as Akira stopped talking it jumped away and through that stupid truck at them. Her brother escaping but she was, once again, forced to slide down the collapsing highway before dodging the cars. She did notice at the time but in her panic at seeing the flaming truck coming sliding towards her she had reached out and fully synced with Katana for the first time. The feeling of that first Sync was one thing that always made her feel better as she was pulled under the truck before the two launched themselves at the Chimera that was threatening the others, killing it and landing before Katana retreated into the Legatus. After a few deep breaths she felt the headache from her first sync come on and fell to the ground, her brother racing to her side and her dad dropping down to check on her before the others started to banter at each other and she ignored it in favor of letting her brother fuss over her before the Helicopter descended to pick them up. 

Suddenly blinking back at her desk looking at the files she closed them before standing up to stretch it was only 11:30 am and she had been sitting at her desk for the last four hours if she didn’t get up and go do something Olive would force her to get up anyway, she was very against any of Neuron spending too much time at their desk and was working on getting Neuron a new headquarters with multiple training rooms. So Akari stood up and began to move out of the control room, heading towards the elevators she waved at a few people noticing how much better she felt as she felt her Legions readjust to being in the present. Katana adjusted first but the others were taking some time as they had been in two places at once and that could be a bit disorienting. Reaching the elevators she had to make a choice she could either head up to the roof and enjoy the wind in her hair, which she needed to get cut as it was a food three inches longer than it had been in that first mission and that was a bit disorienting for her, plus she had forgotten to pull it up into a ponytail that morning so it hung down past her shoulders, or she could go down to the training room and continue beating things up. If she went up to the roof she might run into Akira who could always tell when she skipped breakfast and was worse than her legions about making her eat. Battle grumbled about her missing breakfast as soon as she thought that but after her nightmare she hadn’t had an appetite and he accepted this but would probably force her to go eat lunch around 1 pm. She decided on the training room as that would at least allow her to punch things and she wouldn’t have to think about anything except what she was fighting.

After making her way down to the training level, Akari remembered that the new recruits were training today. There were ten in total, eight officers and two medics, bringing Neurons number up to an amount that would allow them to have a better headquarters and that was in the works, it just needed more time. The trainees were finishing up a very brutal training program without their legions before taking a break to rest before doing it again with their legions. The program was designed to push you to your limit to show the new recruits how much easier things become when you work with your legion rather then just using them as another tool in your arsenal. They all still needed some work and Akari realized that she could give them a push that they needed, plus work out some of her leftover aggression about not being able to punch Yoseph, the stupid fusion obsessed idiot, in the face, which she couldn't do today because of her stupid nightmare. Now to wait for the perfect time to interrupt.


	2. Information

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jin enjoys running new recruits through the training programs but he will never turn down letting them see a pro Legionis in action

Jin loved running the newbies through the training programs that had been built with the original Neuron officers after the whole Yoseph incident. Sure, most of them did not enjoy being test subjects for building a training program but it had worked and now they had a training program that was focused more on bonding with your Legion rather than just learning how to control it. Currently they were taking a break and Jin was watching the recruits slump on the ground drinking water trying to catch their breath after a long run along with fighting. That first run they were not allowed to use their legions and once they were rested they would do it again with their legions. It would hopefully show them how much easier their job would get it they worked with their new partner.

“Well this looks fun.” a female voice was heard from the doorway and JIn looked up to see Akari Howard standing in the doorway her own Legatus already strapped to her wrist and her Sword legion hovering just behind her like the overprotective bodyguard he knew it was. “If you are taking a break, maybe I can show you what you could become.” The look on her face was a strange mix excitement and uncomfort which he guessed made sense as this morning she had clearly been upset about something but he guessed that doing paperwork had calmed her down, somehow. 

“That sounds like a great idea showing them a true bond with a Legion could help them focus on building their own bonds.” He said with a pointed look at two of the recruits that still had trouble bring out their legions. “What do you have in mind, a spar?” 

“Actually I was thinking a blindfolded fight against training program three.” She answered as Jin blinked despite knowing that she could do it, it was odd to see her want to do a training session that involved using your legions eyes instead of your own. 

“That’s a hard one it relies more on feeling your enemies and using your legion to make sure that they don’t hit you.” Jin replied, more for the recruits benefit that Akari’s. She just nodded and he began ushering the recruits out of the training room so she could set up. Training program three was five waves aberrations and small chimeras along with needing to close five gates that popped up and clean up simulated red matter, doing it blindfolded was very difficult but if she wanted to do it so be it. He noticed one of the recruits looking at her with a blush on his face and a quick IRIS scan told him that the guy had been in the police academy with Akira and Akari so he must know them. He would ask later. For now the training room was ready and the program started as Akari covered her eyes with a blindfold and then she started. Watching Akari move through these training sessions with her legion was always something amazing, they were never in each other’s way. The sword legion flew around the arena cleaning red matter and attacking aberrations until the first chimera appeared and the two moved in perfect sync to kill before closing the gate that was left. Jin almost forgot that she was blindfolded as she called her legion back in and moved through the next wave jumping around until she called her arrow legion and Jin figured out what she was doing.

“Of course she is going to do that.” Roy whispered to Li Fang who snorted but nodded this was not the first time they had seen her do this. 

“Alright newbies, watch closely she is going to clear every wave with a different legion so when you see yours pay attention to her strategies, you will be able to use some of them.” The newbies straightened up and began watching closer and Jin made a note to get the footage of the fight to have them review later especially since they would be able to watch it in a full 3D view. She quickly moved through this wave and cleaned up all red matter and closed the gate without incident and Jin knew that the other waves would be about the same. The arm legion and her worked their way through the wave with minimal issues. Though she did get hit once when the Arm legion was clearing red matter but it was a minor hit and she quickly killed the simulated aberration that had hit her. Sealing the gate and triggering the fourth wave she summoned her beast legion. He watched as Akari switched her fighting style to match her legion and hoped that the recruits would take note of that because it was a hard lesson to learn that you had to take your partner into account with how you fought. Jin smiled as he looked over to make sure everyone was paying attention and saw the newbies remember that she was blindfolded through all of this. Laughing quietly he remembered the first time he had seen her do this and laughed louder as he saw Roy and Li Fang do the same, they both had that soft smile most of Neuron got on their faces when thinking about Akari, she had been through so much and everyone owed her so much, yet she still kept fighting to make things better. None of them really knew how to help her with everything she had been through, they tried but everyone knew that she was hiding something. He wanted to help her but even her therapist had admitted that she was positive that Akari was holding things back but they had no idea why. He thought over the information he had gotten from Sarah, who was her neighbor, about Akari’s sleeping habits that he was going to bring it up to Brenda when training was over. It appeared that she could only sleep with something playing, be it a movie or music the fact was that Sarah only heard Akari moving when there was silence in the apartment and knew she was sleeping with music on because if you knocked on her door when she was awake she would open it as soon as possible and Sarah had double checked this multiple times. But that could all wait for now as Akari was in her zone and probably having the time of her life showing off. When he finally got out of his own head Akari was fighting with her axe legion to kill the Chimeras before closing the gate and hearing the finishing tone. She had her legion retreat into the lagatus before pulling off the blindfold and smiling widely at her audience. “Nice one 100% clean up and only took five hits the entire program.” He said as the doors to the training room open up and she walked out breathing a little heavy but not too much. “I still only get 50% clean up on my blindfolded runs.” 

“Well I was the only one doing that for a while so I learned how to sense it so I wouldn’t miss anything.” Akari replied with a smile on her face, her beast legion now lounging at her feet it’s tail flicking from side to side as it watched the new recruits for any sign of a threat. Jin had noticed that her legions tended not to trust new people very much and watched them constantly when they were near their handler. Other Legions trusted the people their handlers trusted but Akari’s were more protective and tended to lean towards overprotective on good days, while fully keeping people that they didn’t know or trust for getting near her in bad days, at least the bad days are getting less and less. “That is not as much of an issue now but it is useful.” She smiled looking at the recruits, “don’t worry about trying to figure it out right away, it took me a while to get it down.” There was one of those statements that made him question things and he could see Roy doing the same, Akari had good sense of how to find red matter and it seemed as though she had always been that good but then she would say things like this that would make them question that. The two made eye contact and nodded about their plan to meetup. Roy nudged Li Fang who looked at him as he gestured to Jin, clearly those two had a plan because soon after she spoke up.

“Akari, have you eaten yet today, because I was just about to go get something to eat with Sarah and Joey, Want to join?” Akari looked torn but the beast legion nudged her forward, It likes those two and was often the one that pulled Akari into the cafeteria on the main floor now that they were allowed to have their legions out at headquarters. Jin was impressed by the ploy, both to get her to be around people and to get her to eat something they all knew that she was avoiding that when she could. Luckily for them, her Legions tended to keep track of when she ate and forced her to eat, most of Neuron had gotten used to seeing Akari being dragged by her one of her legions to the elevators to go eat. Akari started to walk towards the elevator as Li Fang caught up to her and slung an arm over her shoulders talking about a new restaurant she had found, causing the beast legion to trot ahead of them apparently trusting the woman to keep Akari safe. Once they got on the elevator the legion retreated into the Legatus. 

“Okay, break times over, back to it.” Jin called gesturing for the recruits to go back into the training room. “This time you get to use your legion to fight with you.” They all nodded eager to fight with their partner after the display they had just seen. “Remember to watch your limiter and keep track of where your partner is.” The doors shut and the program started the recruits beginning their training. “So I guess you two have been wanting to talk to someone about Akari lately because that went way too smoothly.” Jin turned to Roy as he spoke, Roy just nodded and said.

“Yeah Li Fang and I meet up with Sarah and Joey for lunch every day and we try to get others to join us most days, mostly so Akari doesn’t notice that we are trying to get her to eat at a normal time.” Jin laughed at that and Roy continued, “yesterday Akira joined us and we talked about his sister and, yeah, it was about how we can get her to open up.” He sighed and said, “Akari trains down here rarely nowadays and yet somehow every time she comes down she has somehow improved in ways that only a lot of training could have done.” Roy sighed again shaking his head “so unless she has a secret training area, which I wouldn’t put past her, something is going on.” Jin nodded and Roy sighed sitting down on the bench looking into the training room. “I think it has something to do with what she isn’t telling us about what happened at The ARI.” Jin completely understood because he had noticed it to. “I talked to Akira about this the other day and he admitted that he thinks what she isn’t telling us has something to do with his missing memories.” Jin blinked at that he knew that Akari was hiding something but for it to have affected her brother and her not tell him, evidently his face showed what he was thinking because Roy continued “I don’t think she wants to avoid telling him exactly what but I think something else happened during that last fight, and she can’t tell him the truth without telling him what she really wants to hide.” He leaned his head back letting it hit the wall, “I don’t think she would hide the truth unless it was something she can’t bring herself to talk about.” Jin nodded.

“I know, do you have information about her progress?” He asked causing Roy to scoff and give him a look, “Right, of course you do,” Jin laughed before adding “I am going to be talking to Brenda later about some stuff I have learned, Akira will be there too.” Roy pulled up his notes and scrolled through them selecting certain ones and finally sending Jin a package of data about Akari’s time in the training room. “Thanks, go get something to eat, I’ll send you the recording later of the trainees later.” Roy nodded before speaking.

“Alright, I’ll hold you to it.” Roy stood up and started towards the elevators before stopping and turning back. “I hope you can come up with something because I don’t think she will talk to us about it willingly.” All Jin could do is nod, they needed to help Akari but it was almost as if she both wanted their help and didn’t. Her therapist had mentioned that getting her to open up was something only someone she trusted a lot could do but most of them had no idea who that could be. Maybe his talk with Brenda later would have some results.

An hour later with the recruits being told to meet back there the next day, Jin made his way back to his computer to get some work done before meeting with Brenda, he was sure that a few others would be joining them but he was only sure about Akira. As he sat down at his desk a bag was dropped in front of him, he looked up to see Olive glaring at him.

“Why is it so hard to get people to eat like regular people around here.” Jin flushed and opened his mouth to say he was going to eat after finishing some paperwork but was cut off. “I don’t want to hear your excuses, eat your sandwich and tell me if you know if Akari went to eat yet or do I have to go looking for her too.” Jin laughed, Olive was always looking out for them.

“She went to go get something to eat with Roy, Li Fang, Joey, and Sarah about an hour ago. They got her with the Beast Legion out, so it made her go.” Olive laughed and flashed him a smile that reminded him that she used to be a well loved news anchor.

“Thank god for her legion caring more about her health then she does.” Olive laughed “Sometimes I think that she isn’t given the chance to forget because they are such big mother hens.” Jin smiled at that and added.

“Don’t forget Mama Bears.” His smile turned into a grin, “I never knew that legions could look happy and I always thought I knew what their glares looked until I saw her legions glare at someone they didn’t like.”

“Okay, Yeah.” Olive’s smile softened as she turned to leave. “Eat your sandwich and continue your work, I have to go talk with the Union about our new headquarters for god knows how long.” She headed for the door giving him a wave which he returned. Opening the bag he pulled out a sandwich from a little shop in Harmony Square that he loved and, of course, it was exactly what he ordered every time he went there, one day he would figure out how Olive figured that sort of thing out but for now he would finish his paperwork.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I do believe that Akari could make small changes when she went back but only within the boundaries of what was available. Opening things that she missed and cleaning up red matter. Red matter is the only thing that is really noticed by other thinking that she could always find it. She worked hard to figure out how to find red matter and is open about that but every else thinks that she could always do it until she talks about how hard she worked to figure it out

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be long


End file.
